Effects of contaminant exposure on plants: radiological protection of the environment implications for ecotoxicology and

Results of laboratory, “green-house” and long-term field experiments carried out on different plant species to study ecotoxical effects of low doses and concentrations of most common environmental pollutants are presented. Special attention is paid to ecotoxic effects of chronic low dose exposures, synergistic and antagonistic effects of different factors’ of combined action. The results of long-term field experiments in the 30-km Chernobyl NPP zone and in the vicinity of a radioactive wastes storage facility are discussed. The data presented suggest that the further evolution of investigations in this field would issue in the development of a theoretical bases and practical procedures for environmental protection against radioactivity, taking into account the new experimentally confirmed facts on such essentially important singularities as the nonlinearity of a dose-effect relationship, radiation-induced genomic instability, phenomenon of radioadaptation, increased probability of synergetic and antagonistic effects of the combined action of different nature factors.